Search is a continuously growing industry in today's world given the wealth of digital information that can be stored by computer systems. For instance, search is a powerful tool to allow users to search for websites and digital documents. Search can also be used to retrieve digital images and is often employed in e-commerce platforms, such as, for instance, websites dealing with products, real estate, and travel.
Conventional search engines often use a keyword search approach in which a user submits a search query with keywords to the search engine. The search engine identifies search results relevant to the keywords and returns the most relevant search results to the user. The user either finds a desired search result, or if not, submits a modified search query and the process continues until a desired search result is found or the user gives up. In some cases, conventional search engines use a faceted search approach, in which information is organized using a classification system that enables users to search for information using filters based on the classification system.
There are a number of limitations of conventional search engines. For instance, it is sometimes difficult for users to form an adequate search query. Often, the search engine returns a large number of search results, and the user is left to sift through the search results. As noted above, if the search results don't provide what the user is seeking, the user may need to continuously modify the search query. This process can be cumbersome, frustrating, and extremely time consuming for users. For instance, in the specific case of stock image sites that are used by designers for searching images, the search can go on for hours and sometimes days as the designers try to find images most suited to their use case. In these situations, search becomes much more mechanical and time consuming. Designers tend to start with broad and abstract ideas which are refined over time as the designers modify their search queries. In such cases, it is difficult for the designers to express the context and user intent using just keywords and faceted search.